Rasmus Spanggaard at Arbejdernes Landsbank was one of the first Nordic graduates from the SAS Programming Master Class

When Rasmus Spanggaard joined Arbejdernes Landsbank as a risk analyst, he had some working knowledge of SAS® tools. He quickly found that he could gain a lot of advantages if he learned more about them, as SAS analytical tools are used throughout the bank.

“I found myself working in SAS almost 90 percent of the time. I felt that I needed to be able to solve my assignments more efficiently. In Arbejdernes Landsbank, we strive to be responsible, present and strive for simplicity. I needed tools to help me achieve that”, says Rasmus Spanggaard.

On the advice of his manager, Head of Credit Risk Gry Bandholm, he started looking into available SAS® training modules. Eventually, he settled on the SAS Programming Master Class, a four-to-six-month intensive training program.

“I was especially interested in the Macro and Advanced Programming modules, as these were what I particularly needed. I was hoping to gain the ability to program more dynamically and optimize the different parts of the tasks. But when we became aware of the opportunity that I could join the Master Class and get both these classes and more, including certification, the choice was pretty easy to make”.

I gained benefit from the Macro Course to give me a better understanding of how to write macros, not just understand how they work. Now it’s easy to write them and my programs are working much faster.Rasmus SpanggaardRisk Analyst, Division or DepartmentArbejdernes Landsbank

Prepping for SAS® certification

Rasmus Spanggaard attended five courses over the course of 14 days and two so-called lab days, which were especially useful to prep for the certification exam. He estimates that he used about 40 hours of additional prep time studying for the certification.

“It was a good experience. In particular, I gained benefit from the Macro Course to give me a better understanding of how to write macros, not just understand how they work. Now it’s easy to write them and my programs are working much faster, since I now know how to optimize them. I save a lot of code lines now that I work in macros all the time, and my programs are easier for others to understand.”

He is happy to recommend the SAS Programming Master Class to others looking to gain more benefit from their SAS® Analytics tools.

“I think both beginners and more intermediate users can benefit from gaining the basic understanding of the software and how to optimize your work. You can really save yourself a lot of time in the long run. There are so many tips and tricks to be had from the instructors and you hear from people in other companies how they work with SAS”.

Arbejdernes Landsbank – Facts & Figures

300.000

Private and business customers
in Denmark

10 Years

Consecutive awards as most preferred bank among Danes

Est. in 1919

Founded on social responsibility

A new proficiency

The bottom line for Rasmus Spanggaard has been time saved in data processing and thus, more time dedicated to other assignments. He has also gained the language to be able to discuss the different possibilities in SAS tools with his colleagues.

Rasmus’ boss Gry Bandholm is also noticing how the training has helped him.

“He is able to just take an assignment and run with it, he does not need to ask so many questions – I even see people asking him for advice now. It is obvious that he is enjoying this proficiency and I would certainly consider sending other team members to the SAS Master Class”, Gry Bandholm concludes.

Next steps

The results illustrated in this article are specific to the particular situations, business models, data input, and computing environments described herein. Each SAS customer’s experience is unique based on business and technical variables and all statements must be considered non-typical. Actual savings, results, and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. SAS does not guarantee or represent that every customer will achieve similar results. The only warranties for SAS products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements in the written agreement for such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Customers have shared their successes with SAS as part of an agreed-upon contractual exchange or project success summarization following a successful implementation of SAS software. Brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.